


Love Day(TM) - Castiel Novak style

by abbylabby



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Love Day(TM) AU, M/M, Unfinished, this is very short but still one of my favourite things I've ever created what can I say
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-01
Updated: 2012-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-19 06:57:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3600558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abbylabby/pseuds/abbylabby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is an unfinished AU that I was going to build a whole world around, but never got around to.<br/>It's all based on the idea of Love Day(TM) and really, I need Love Day(TM) AUs for all my OTPs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Day(TM) - Castiel Novak style

Castiel was tired.

So very tired.

It had been 42 days.

42 days of waking up, sore, walking, short breaks, more walking, a short night of fitful sleeping, waking up, same thing again.

42 days.

The longest 42 days of his life.

The worst thing was that he knew he could stop any time.

Find a train station, a bus stop, an airport, something, and go back to his life.

His whole family thought he’d gone insane.

On the 43rd morning of waking up at what felt like, not an inch closer to reaching the destination of his venture, he was inclined to agree with them.

There wasn’t even a guaranteed success; he was quite possibly wasting his time, endangering his health and sanity, all for nothing.

All for ‘superstition’.

His mouth curled up in disgust at the mere thought.

A few years back, a book of prophecies had been discovered, written by a certain Chuck Shirley /Edlund Carver.

So far, so ignorable, if it hadn’t been for the person who’d found the book.

Becky Rosen, young and excitable as she was, had taken to mentioning the prophecies on a forum she frequented and as time passed, and more and more prophecies seemed to come true, had gathered rather an impressive following.

These days she maintained her own website (‘ChuckKnows.com’, incredibly popular with ages 13-32), in which she released daily prophecies, with the occasional ‘event’, reserved for prophecies with an impact on wider parts of the population.

One of these ‘events’ was the reason for Castiel’s endeavor.

Becky had made quite a big deal out of it, since it had been far more detailed than any of the previous prophecies.

Most of the ones before had been concise, not longer than a few sentences each. This one had taken up the better part of two pages. It had had also differed rather greatly in the nature of the event described. The previous predictions had concerned the weather, the spread of sicknesses, the stock market, the outcome of elections, the tv program or warnings of terrorist attacks.

The prophecy for Sunday, the 27th of May, was different.

It spoke of ‘a pull that every person that is of age can feel in their heart. It will start precisely at noon and if followed, will lead them to their soul mate.’ That in itself had guaranteed Becky more than the usual vague interest. Most people held ‘soul mates’ in a regard that the stock market, no matter how hard it tried, would never be able to compete with.

But, as always in life, what started out pretty straight forward ‘follow the pull’, turned out somewhat more complicated than expected. For example, you could not travel by car, though Chuck was a little skimpy on the details as to exactly why you couldn’t. Even a bike was taboo. You had to walk on your own two feet. And you could not give up. It was ‘a most peculiar occasion that will not return for many centuries to come. Should you ever stop following the pull, turn away with intention of going somewhere else, the pull will stop and there’s nothing you can do to get it back. This is a unique opportunity, use it wisely.’

An opportunity to find true love, to find your ‘soul mate’, the interest was immense. On the day Becky posted about LOVE DAY(TM) the site crashed no less than five times. Becky later claimed she ‘had never felt more alive’.

There were LOVE DAY(TM)-tshirts, LOVE DAY(TM)-cards, the official ‘LOVE DAY(TM) survival kit’(consisting of a tent, a sleeping bag, a map, a compass and a week’s supply of energy bars), LOVE DAYTM-teddy bears and basically anything that you could write ‘LOVE DAY(TM)’ on.

Becky was no fool.

She knew a business opportunity when she saw one. And though there were many nay-sayers, loads of them actually, there were also those, who gleefully decked themselves with merchandise and took a few days off work around the 27th, to follow their dream and find their soulmate, indulgently smiled at and figuratively patronizingly patted on the head by the rest of society.

Castiel had surprised himself, when he realized that he actually wanted to be one of them.

Castiel Novak wasn’t what you’d call adventurous. Quite the opposite really. In his 34 years on the planet he had not taken a risk greater than crossing the street without double-checking there was no car approaching.

This also held true for his relationships. All two of them. Both had been with very nice men, that he’d met at church. They had dated for long periods of time. He’d been with Stephen for 3 years and with Mark for 5 years. He’d figured that he’d marry Mark, but Mark had different plans. He ran off with a biker. The whole affair had been a bit unfortunate, but Castiel wished them the best of luck. He realized that that was not really the reaction that most people would have to this, that he should get upset, but he just hoped that Mark and his new boyfriend were happy together. It was probably better that they had not ended up getting married, in the long run. No one should be okay with their husband driving off into the sunset on the back of a Harley.

Okay though Castiel was with the turn of events, he had been left shaken. Not visibly, everybody remarked on how well he was taking it, but he felt unsettled in his very core. He felt like maybe he had never been in love, that maybe he hadn’t ever really understood the concept. So if the memory of Mark hadn’t been as fresh in his mind, the 27th would have been just another day.

As it was, he spend the days approaching the 27th in a haze, debating the pros and cons, packing a bag, unpacking the bag, repacking the bag, being convinced that he should go, being convinced that it was the most stupid thing he had ever heard, being convinced he should stay at home, being convinced that it was the best thing he’d ever heard.

He didn’t sleep much.

Neither did any of the other LOVE DAY(TM)-enthusiasts.

Becky lived off Red Bull and coffee during that time.

The ‘non-believers’ watched with a mixture of pity and amusement. They were secretly waiting for the whole thing to crash and burn, so they could say ‘I told you so’.

Those who didn’t care, …, well, they didn’t care. They moved on with their lives and pretended that nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

The 27th of March began like any other Sunday: millions of Americans dragged themselves out of bed for church, silently cursing themselves and even more their priests. Castiel’s morning involved rather less cursing, and not only because he generally tried to refrain from swearing, but also because he genuinely enjoyed going to church. His congregation was a small, very open-minded, warm community that tried to treat everybody like they were family. It lay on the outskirts of New Haven, a 20 minute ride away from Cas’ house. He’d managed to ignore the date for most of the morning, had gotten dressed, had breakfast, had forgone the newspaper for obvious reasons and by the time he got in his car, it almost felt like a normal Sunday morning.

That is, until he turned on the radio. ‘…and the L.A. LOVE DAY(TM)-celebrations are in full swing!’ an exuberant voice all but shouted at him. ‘There’s the mayor on the first float! Waving at the cheering crowd. This parade is gearing up to…’ Castiel switched the radio off with a grimace. A tape it was then. As the soothing tunes of yet another of Taylor Swifts love songs filled the car, he started to relax. Whenever he got worked up about his love life, or lack thereof, he liked to listen to Miss Swift. The way she went on and on about love and heartbreak made him think that just maybe he wasn’t missing out on anything after all. By the time he drew up in the church’s parking lot, he was almost fully convinced that LOVE DAY(TM) was just a hoax and that he would ignore it.

 

Castiel didn’t know it yet, but today, the 9th of July, the 43rd day, he would give up.

**Author's Note:**

> So, what was going to happen was that Cas was going to give up, but he didn't /really/ give up (yeah, I know) but the thing is that he'd still find his way to Dean, who was at that time working as a fry cook in some diner some hundred miles away from where he gave up.  
> I'm not sure if it would have made any sense, but it was going to be beautiful :'D


End file.
